So here is the lowdown on
paying your electricity bill in Panama

1. You can’t pay by credit card, so I assume you can’t pay by debit card either.
2. The first time I went to pay the electricity bill, my then landlady told me to go to Banco something (sorry I can’t remember which bank it was as there’s a few that start with “Banco”. It was the one with the blue logo. It was a long time ago. I waited in line for over 30 minutes & then was told they don’t accept payment there. Boy was I PISSED.
3. You can pay your bill at 2 different locations: epago or Western Union. They are both bill payment locations.

   I like epago better as I think the credit on your bill happens a lot faster than with Western Union. Cableonda just told me that with Western Union it takes 2 days. Western Union told me it takes one day. Of course you never know what the truth is because in this country they are all clueless.

   epago is located in most grocery stores & there’s almost always a lineup & they are very slow workers. Remember, they have to socialize on your time, plus they just don’t know what they are doing even though they do the same repetitive task every day.

4. This is off topic, but if you don’t pay your bill in full they don’t close your account. At what point they do I have no idea.
5. If you need to switch the account to someone else’s name, the balance will have to be paid first. This makes logical sense.
6. Always keep your receipts. I’ve heard horror stories of expats paying the bill & Union Fenoza (the electricity company that’s terrible) saying they didn’t get the payments.
7. If the electricity bill isn’t under your name & you walk into a Union Fenoza location, they won’t give you a print out of the bill, but they will give you the balance & payments you made.

   Even at the Union Fenoza locations which are sometimes huge epago locations, the wait time can run you close to an hour just to pay your bloody bill.